Weekend box office: Captain America: Civil War has a huge opening

Brad SturdivantMay 8th, 2016

Everyone knew that CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR (click the link to read our review) was going to do incredibly well at the weekend box office to the point that most box office pundits had the total for Civil War estimated between $175m and $200m. It turns out that Civil War is going to come in at the low side of that number, somewhere around $180 million. Before anyone scoffs at that number, keep in mind that it’s good enough for fifth all time, so lets not squabble over $15 million. I think Civil War will end up beating some of those other films’ total box office performance once everything is said and done because Civil War is getting great critical acclaim and even better word of mouth. It’s also a movie you could watch multiple times because there’s so much to soak in. There were no other new movies at the weekend box office because studios aren’t completely stupid. Marvel is a juggernaut and it’s best not to get in its way.

With all due respect to George Clooney and Julia Roberts, their new film MONEY MONSTER has zero chance of making a dent in the box office run of CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR. They don’t really appeal to the same audience, but it’s still an odd choice to open a corporate greed movie like MONEY MONSTER in the early summer, even with Clooney leading the way. It feels much more like a late September release. So I fully expect Civil War to continue strong with minimal drop from week over week. Note: the numbers below will be updated as they become final.